Recent advances in camera technology allow content consumers to take high resolution pictures or videos on a mobile device. Mobile device screens, however, are typically significantly smaller than television (TV) display screens, which may be greater than 24 inches diagonally. So a content consumer may want to cast, for example, the image from his mobile device across a wireless network to the TV having the much larger screen for display.
One well-known technique to display the corresponding image on the TV screen is to “mirror” the mobile device's display screen. In typical implementations, successive captures (e.g., image frames) of the mobile device screen are compressed and sent over the wireless network to the TV. The TV receives and decompresses each received frame before displaying on the TV screen.
But conventional “mirroring” technologies are bandwidth intensive as the mobile device needs to continuously transfer screen captures to the television via the wireless network. “Mirroring” technologies are also resource intensive because the mobile device needs to continuously compress and send image data for display on the TV. Similarly, TVs also expend significant resources to receive and decompress the image data from the mobile devices. This resource-intensive technology further shortens battery life, decreases responsiveness, and generates excessive heat for both the mobile device and the television.